Proposal would subject online porn viewers to face scans

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Australia’s national security ministry is proposing the use of facial recognition technology to prevent minors from accessing online porn.

The Department of Home Affairs submitted a short proposal to Parliament earlier this month in which it outlined a “Face Verification Service.” The technology is still in development, but it would scan an internet user’s face and match it against images on their official government ID.

“This could assist in age verification, for example by preventing a minor from using their parent’s driver (licence) to circumvent age verification controls,” the submission suggested. The one-page document doesn’t go into detail about how the technology would work and adds that it is “not yet fully operational.” The ministry said its technology is being designed to prevent identity crime, which they claim costs the Australian economy AUS$2 billion annually.

Other governments have also grappled with the issue of minors and pornography. The United Kingdom earlier this month abandoned attempts to enforce age verification on porn sites after privacy concerns and other practical legal issues, such as legislating foreign websites.

The current Australian framework for “identity matching,” which does not include face recognition, has been in use by government agencies for a decade and private groups since 2014. It includes the “Document Verification Service,” which uses an online system to compare a customer’s information with passports, driver licences and birth certificates. The system was involved in about 48 million transactions in the 2018-2019 period. The ministry said that service can only be used with appropriate consent under the law, as would face recognition software.

“Private sector (organizations) can only use the Document Verification Service -- and will only be able to use the Face Verification Service -- to check a person’s identity with their consent, and only where this is permitted by the Privacy Act 1988,” the submission notes.

The “Face Verification Service” will only be used in the private sector if permitted by the passage of the “Identity-matching Services Bill 2019,” which is currently before Parliament.

“The use of driver (licence) images through the Face Verification Service is also subject to the agreement of the states and territories,” the ministry added in its submission.